Ecommerce Pulse Report
Ecommerce Pulse Report for Housewares, Garden & Furnishings
Online Housewares, Garden & Furnishings sales are affected by all kinds of outside influences — the season, pop culture, social media and the economy. Anticipating the furnishings and home accessories customers will want and having it when and where they want it is a constant challenge. See how your company performance compares to industry peers from the Signifyd Commerce Network.
Sure, everyone agreed that ecommerce was on an impressive growth path.
What nobody knew was that those rosy projections weren’t even close. Instead, 2020 has delivered the Great Acceleration, a turning point at which ecommerce accelerated at warp speed as consumers enthusiastically embraced the convenience and selection available through online buying.
Ecommerce has been propelled five years into the future, with sales figures we were expecting in 2025 arriving today.
Welcome to the future, a world in which online sales have become increasingly important to Housewares, Garden & Furnishings merchants. The prominent role of ecommerce requires new thinking around merchandising, marketing and customer experience.
“Retail executives have been fixated on the dramatic increase in ecommerce sales, but the more interesting story is less about the last few months and more about the next few years. Based on the totality of transactions passing through Signifyd’s network, we see that this cohort of new users are buying online for the first time, and then returning to shop online again at the same or another merchant within one month. Returning to shop in short order is the way new spending habits form and share-of-wallet shifts.”
J. BENNETT, SVP OPERATIONS & CORP. DEVELOPMENT, SIGNIFYD
Housewares, Garden & Furnishings companies have seen impressive growth, but even accounting for seasonality, the swings in sales can be hard to predict.
When we dig into the numbers and take a long view, we can see there are directional patterns even in the best of times. What’s also clear is that while sales have their ups and downs, the overall direction is up.
Pulling the levers on pricing and promotions has had a profound effect on the overall business.
Housewares, Garden & Furnishings merchants need to manage the balance between attracting additional business with promotions and joining a race to the bottom with competitors. Average order value can serve as a key gauge of the effect that pricing and promotions are having on the overall business.
Housewares, Garden & Furnishings shoppers have shown a new enthusiasm for ordering online and picking up in store or at the curbside.
Consumers shopping for Housewares, Garden & Furnishings historically steered clear of buying online and picking up in the store or at the curbside, given the bulk of many of the products. But big box home improvement stores all-but perfected the option and sentiment changed. Now in-store and curbside pickup are almost expected in the vertical.
Fraud pressure is a moving target with fraudsters constantly probing for weaknesses.
Fraudsters target the Housewares, Garden & Furnishings vertical in different times and ways. Sometimes it’s as simple as fraudsters going after the weakest link at any given time. Signifyd’s Fraud Pressure Index charts the rise and fall of very high risk — and presumably fraudulent — orders over time. Fraud levels are compared to a Q1 benchmark of 100%.
Current fraud trends to watch out for
With big surges comes operational gaps. Expect challenges from these fraud pressure vectors:
eBay Marketplace “Triangulation” Fraud
The fraudster creates genuine seller profile on marketplaces and uses stolen card data to fulfill the order from another retailer. Attack vector moved to popular SKUs over the summer.
Look-alike Fraud Websites
Fraudsters clone brand websites to replicate brand look onto similar URL, but do not ship product after accepting payment. Trending SKUs will be targeted.
Touchless Delivery Abuse Risk
As FedEx and UPS moved to no-signature delivery, retailers saw an uptick of Item-Not-Recieved (INR) and Significantly-Not-As-Described (SNAD) claims.
Curbside Pickup BOPIS Mule Fraud
Many retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods and Best Buy accelerated BOPIS (touchless curbside pickup) to counter store closures. They also saw an uptick in mule fraud.
Methodology
What’s in our Housewares, Garden & Furnishings Index?
The Ecommerce Pulse Report from Signifyd was designed to provide ongoing coverage of changes and trends in the ecommerce landscape. The data in this report illustrates how the Housewares, Garden & Furnishings vertical is performing now compared to historical performance. Data is aggregated by category across thousands of ecommerce merchants globally.
Categories
- Furniture & Home Decor
- Home Improvement & Appliances
Fast Facts
- Full fidelity on 60M orders per month (session behavior, cart data, payment info, shipping and billing info)
- 98% of transactions are identified automatically because of the breadth and strength of our network